Episode 86: More Adventures in Atheism and Christian Radio Abroad?!

Phil’s faith adventure continues as viewers write in with questions, and atheists respond. PLUS – ever wonder what the difference is between Christian radio in the US and the UK? Its significant! (And it doesn’t make us Yanks look good…)

When Christian mentioned that she felt unprepared to have some of these hard conversations, it made me think of something that happened to me a few weeks ago. An angry atheist tried to debate me online about something I had written. He wanted me to defend some things about Christianity unrelated to what I had written that I had never cared to spend any time thinking about. It was something that bothered him but didn’t matter to me at all.

His last question was, “Do you believe God created everything in the universe with a purpose?”

I responded, “I don’t know. I have a lot of questions about that that I look forward to asking Him one day.” I was thinking specifically of mosquitos–I truly look forward to having that conversation with God someday. I believe I have some valid points. Anyway, that ended his desire to continue. He didn’t want to go on because there wasn’t an angry fight in me.

In the end, we can never, ever have all the answers to everyone’s questions. There will always be someone out there who has read something we haven’t. They have pondered something we haven’t. There are many people who God couldn’t answer their questions, because they don’t actually want an answer. They’re just angry and they want to fight.

We need to learn good apologetics, but more importantly we need to learn to respond to the anger. To the emptiness. To the fear. John Wesley was converted because he encountered a group of Moravian Brethren who genuinely didn’t fear death. He had never encountered that before in all his years of being “A Christian.” We need to train young believers not only to understand what they believe, but to want to “hug” those who have experiences like Phil pointed out. Debates are good for growing in knowledge, but Skye is right–no one will ever be debated into the kingdom.

Great conversations these past few weeks. I long to see more Christians in America who truly know God and are not intimidated by smart Atheists or other non-Christians. If we truly know God, we should never be afraid of things outside “our faith.” I long to see a resurgence of men and women like Isaac Newton. Men and women who look at the created order and desire to uncover the things that God has hidden there, not too afraid that they might find evidence that God doesn’t exist.

youtube.comyoutube.comyoutube.comSo you guys touched on that Queen Extravaganza tribute band whose lead singer, Marc Martel was formerly known in the band Downhere. First off, I think they have amazing music and i secondly let you know that they band formally ended about a year ago. Marc moved on to do this Freddie Mercury dopple ganger thingy.. and the rest of the family supposedly to focus on their young family life. I went to both Downhere concerts and Queen Extraveganza concerts and have followed the band for a while. I highly recommend their old stuff. Here’s some links to give you guys a taste of them.

How Many Kings – Downhere http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw3EG6kVNtI
Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen Extravaganza http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA1ZNuQMvv0
he can even play the piano like Freddie.. I would say pray that Marc will reach many through this rather than focusing on the irony of him doing this.. I heard an interview where he talked about this very fact. He loved Jesus and this would be a great way for many Queen fans to be exposed to his earlier Christian works.

I love the show. I believe that there is not good debates/shows in the USA because critical thinking skills/people skills is not really valued or widely taught in the USA. Therefore, there is not a demand to hear that kind of entertainment.

Just a comment on the point at the end of the podcast about putting trust in experts: with ‘atheists’ (meaning those who deny the supernatural) the point is NOT which expert to put your trust in; this is a fundamental misunderstanding that many theists make. The trust is not in any expert, no matter how esteemed, but the scientific method itself. Evolution isn’t true because Darwin thought natural selection was a nice idea, or Dawkins gets a kick out of it, or the Queen of England thinks it’s kind-a-groovy. Evolution is true because it has been repeatedly tested and found to be true, and the explanation it provides of the natural world gives us the ability to formulate testible predictions that have also been found true. And — most importantly — all of this work has been published and peer reviewed.

This is why many atheists counter-apologists will call theists on using ‘appeals to authority’. Indeed, you’ll note in the Ham/Nye debate, Ham spent a lot of time namechecking people and playing videos from contributors to the affect that “they have a PhD and beleive in Creationism”, while Nye hardly namechecked anyone and simply explained how the science had been tested. Atheists aren’t really big on appeals to authority; they prefer to know how well an idea has been tested rather than who subscribes to it.

When you next listen to atheist/theist debates on Unbelievable — or indeed apologists like William Lane Craig or John Lennox — pay close attention to how often each side appeals to experts to make points. You’ll soon see a clear bias. (Tip: if you have one of those cheap Roku tv boxes, there’s a free channel called “Sound Reason” that let’s you listen to hundreds of atheist/theist debates.)